Remembering Clarence Clemons: Nils Lofgren, Bobby Keys Sound Off

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A year ago today, the music world lost one of it’s most distinctive horn players when E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons passed away. Clemons died from complications from a stroke he’d suffered days earlier.

Bruce Springsteen made the decision to keep The E Street Band going after Clemons’ death. As he said at “The Big Man’s” funeral, “Clarence doesn’t leave the E Street Band when he dies. He leaves when we die.” The touring version of The E Street Band now features an entire horn section, including two sax players: Eddie Manion (formerly of Southside Johnny’s Asbury Jukes) and Clarence’s nephew Jake Clemons.

E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren told CBS Local that Clemons could never really be replaced.

Bobby Keys is one of rock and roll’s most ubiquitous sax players, having played for decades with The Rolling Stones, as well as with John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow. He told CBS Local that he had great respect for Clemons’ playing.

You can read more about Clemons’ life in his autobiography Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales.